


the days that bind us together

by whyclarke



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellarke, Brollexa, Canon Divergence, F/M, Multi, major fluff, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 04:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7028179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whyclarke/pseuds/whyclarke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>au in which lexa doesn’t die in season 3, and the defeat of ALIE/death of Pike has brought a tentative peace between Arkadia and the Grounders (clueless!clarke has no idea that both bellamy and lexa are in love with her, and clexa didn’t happen in s3, only the kiss in s2)</p><p>it’s the first time bellamy and lexa are going to formally meet, and clarke wants it to go perfect. It goes a little bit more perfect than she plans, however, and lexa and bellamy become fast friends. title from bastille’s bad blood! </p><p>//thanks to the lovely @smolgayheda on tumblr for the request and to @problematicbellarke for proofreading, ily\\<br/>follow me on tumblr: whyclarke.tumblr.com :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the days that bind us together

Clarke is worried that someone is going to die today. Bellamy and Lexa have never seen eye to eye, especially when it comes to Clarke - Clarke has never understood why, but Bellamy has a fiercely protective streak when it comes to her; she’s wondered if he thinks of her in the way he thinks of his sister. She wonders why Bellamy thinking of Clarke as his sister bothers her. And Lexa is, well, Lexa. If Clarke is a thunderstorm, Lexa is a hurricane; as unpredictable as a lightning strike and as ruthless as a tsunami. Clarke is worried that when the two finally meet, there will be a clash as colossal as the stories that Bellamy loves to tell the younger delinquents - Poseidon and Zeus, destroying entire continents in their feuds. 

“Octavia, I’m worried. Can you talk to Bellamy, make sure that he’s going to be on his best behavior? I really want this to go well.” Clarke approaches Octavia an hour and twenty-seven minutes before Lexa comes to Arkadia for the first time as Skaikru’s friend, rather than foe. She knows because she’s been counting down the minutes since Lexa agreed to come. ALIE’s defeat and Pike’s death allowed a tentative alliance to form between the Grounders and the Sky-People, and Clarke really doesn’t want to mess up what could be the 100’s first shot at real peace. Octavia snorts, tucking a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ear. 

“Like I could make Bellamy do anything. You tell him, princess - he’ll listen to you.” Clarke shakes her head, but Octavia has already made up her mind, jogging off to do God knows what in the woods. Clarke has been more worried about Octavia since Pike’s death than Bellamy has been, and she can’t help but think that all the space Bellamy has been giving his sister is hurting Octavia more than he thinks. Sighing, she starts off to find Bellamy, wondering when the Blake siblings were going to make up already. 

***

“Bellamy, this is important to me! I need you to be nice to her. This might be the only chance we have to be a unified front for whatever the hell is happening out there, and I have a feeling that we’re going to need it.” Clarke is starting to get annoyed - when she approached Bellamy, he told her that he could “make no promises”, like he could ever beat Lexa in a fight. When she told him so, he got offended, saying that he could take anyone - even the most skilled fighter that the Grounders have. She was both baffled by his pride and annoyed at his stubbornness, but she had to be sure this meeting would be perfect. So, with only fifty-two minutes until Lexa arrives, she was still bickering with the eldest Blake over if he or Lexa would win in a fight. 

“Okay, okay. I’ll be on my best behavior, princess, but if I’m provoked…” Bellamy has his arms crossed, a smug smirk on his lips. Clarke wonders if she would be able to beat him in a fight - she decides that at this moment, she could. Shaking her head, she purses her lips and walks away, knowing that this is the best she’s going to get from someone as bullheaded as Bellamy Blake. 

***

“Clarke told me that you’d beat me in a fight.” Bellamy is smirking like he did that day, and Clarke groans, rolling her eyes. Bellamy and Lexa didn’t butt heads like Clarke had expected, they hit it off, and now they were together so often Clarke almost felt jealous (Clarke didn’t really understand why she was jealous of Bellamy spending time with Lexa, because wasn’t it her wish that they got along?) If you asked Clarke, however, it was amazing that they were so close. They even had some inside joke that Clarke knew was about her - every time she looked at them talking, they would look at each other slyly, like they knew a secret she didn’t. One thing Clarke had expected, though, was their competitive streak. Didn’t matter what it was, there was always some sort of competition between the two of them - the first was when the first snowfall came and they had the most hardcore snowball fight Clarke had ever seen, and it only went downhill from there. Bellamy and Lexa were good for each other, Clarke thought; they had their demons, but when they were together they were almost happy. Clarke had never seen anything like it.

“She is correct, Bellamy Blake. I would not just defeat you in battle, I would annihilate you.” Lexa’s dry tone made her sound serious, but there was a glint of humor in her eyes that reassured Clarke. She had never pegged Lexa (or Bellamy, for that matter) as the “joking” type - that title went to Jasper and Monty, for sure - but the pair had gained a reputation for the biggest pranksters in Arkadia (Clarke still hadn’t 100% forgiven them for replacing her moonshine with the bitter, thin sap from the birch tree two miles west from camp), though their sense of humor was slightly morbid. 

“No way, Commander. This is one fight that even you can’t win.” Bellamy says “commander” almost like he says “princess”, but his voice is softer when he calls Clarke by her nickname, somehow. Clarke can almost feel jealousy rising in her chest again, but the thought that Bellamy saves the soft, particular tone of voice for his princess melts it away.

“Let us find out, Bellamy Blake. I challenge you to a duel, with fists, at dawn tomorrow. The first person to pin the other on the ground for ten seconds, wins.” Lexa puts her hand out for Bellamy to shake, but he hesitates. Suddenly, a glint of mirth shines in his expressive eyes.

“Winner gets to kiss Clarke.” He says, and Clarke abruptly sits back, but it’s too late - Monty, Harper, Jasper, Raven, and Octavia are cheering like they’ve won a bet, and Murphy and Emori are smiling at each other like they’re in on whatever secret Bellamy and Lexa are hiding from Clarke. Bellamy gruffly tells them to shut up, but Octavia only says “Cheer up, big brother. You’ll finally get your wish.” Clarke searches for some hint of malice in the statement, but it seems that Octavia is finally beginning to forgive her brother. Clarke smiles, and nods in agreement.

“Well, it’s a good thing I already know that Lexa’s a good kisser.” She jokes, and the group erupts into laughter. For a moment, they all forget that the world is dying, and Lexa and Bellamy shake hands, both struggling to keep up their normal facade of stoic thunder. 

***

The bets were placed around the fire the night before - Clarke bet on Lexa, of course, as well as Raven and Jasper, but Monty, Octavia, and Harper betted that Bellamy would win, if only because he makes the first move. Clarke wonders if she really thinks Lexa will win, or if she’s afraid of what might happen if Bellamy does. When the sun finally begins to rise, Lexa and Bellamy are standing in the same dueling grounds that ended with Nia’s death not long ago. The bloodstain has long faded, though, and so the day is not tainted by bloodshed. Clarke wonders if they’re doing this for her - she has confided in both Lexa and Bellamy how terrified she is for the coming storm, and the calm that has struck the land is only making her more on edge. The distraction of the fight is a welcome one, Clarke thinks, and though she knows that it will only last until Bellamy is pinned to the ground, she tries to lose herself in it.

“You’re going down, Commander.” Bellamy’s face is serious, like it always is during a fight, but Lexa is smiling softly.

“You can tell yourself that, Bellamy Blake, but that does not make it to be true.” The group of friends watching let out a humored “oooh” and Clarke thinks that Jasper is smiling. The only time she’s seen Jasper smile since Clarke killed Maya Maya died was with Shay on Floukru’s ship. Clarke smiles too, and she feels something other than worry blooming in her chest. She swears she hasn’t felt this happy since Unity Day on the dropship. Bellamy sees her smiling and is caught for a second, because he hasn’t seen her smile in a long time. He is reminded of a kiss on his cheek, so long ago, and he is distracted when Lexa punches him in the nose. 

Blood drips from the wound as Monty and Harper boo loudly, and he thinks that he hears Octavia tell him to focus on the job. He is ready when the second punch comes, ducking low to dodge, and he feels the air whistle past his dark mop of curls. He knows her momentum isn’t prepared for him, and so he leaps at her, almost surprising himself when she falls. She rolls when she hits the ground and jumps back to her feet, but the damage is done - she wastes time steadying herself on the slippery dirt, still damp from the morning’s dew, and Bellamy delivers a swift blow to the stomach and then to the head. She falls, and Bellamy pins her there until Octavia yells “That’s ten!” The two rise from the ground, sporting matching nosebleeds, and they smile. Lexa gives Bellamy a hug, surprising them both, and they turn to Clarke. Bellamy shares a look with his sister that Clarke can’t quite figure out, and then turns to Clarke. 

“Pucker up, princess.” He leans down to her, hand on the small of her back, and touches his lips to hers. He’s a good kisser, but it’s no surprise, given all the girls who seemed to think the same on the dropship. She rises up on her tiptoes a little, running her fingers through his mess of curls and melting into the kiss. Bellamy hesitates for a moment longer than he should, then pulls away, and Clarke swears that his eyes are telling her to say no, to stay. She wants to think that he’s telling her something more, but she remembers all the girls he paraded from his bed at the dropship and reminds herself that it’s only a kiss.

“I guess it wasn’t such a bad thing that you won after all.” Clarke says, trying to play off the longing in her eyes as humor. From the way Emori is looking at her, it’s not working. Lexa is laughing quietly, and Bellamy makes a face at her. But Lexa’s laughter, Clarke realizes, isn’t about Bellamy’s (admittedly wonderful) kissing skills. Clarke saw Lexa fight Roan, knows that she had to beat other nightbloods in order to ascend to the throne - and she knows now, with unwavering certainty, that Lexa let Bellamy win. What she can’t figure out is why, but she does understand that Bellamy must never find out. Clarke doesn’t think his pride can handle it.

***

Bellamy knows that Lexa let him win, but right now, it doesn’t bother him in the slightest. She still hasn’t figured it out yet, but he kissed her on the lips and he knows that she felt the spark between them too. He wasn’t sure if she would like it, and so he was so much more gentle than he wanted to be - every fiber of his being was screaming for him to shove her against the stands where Nia was speared and knot his hands in her hair and smash his lips so hard into hers that her teeth hurt afterwards because she was Clarke Griffin, Commander of Death, and she was stronger than all of them. He knew that she wouldn’t break if he had, but he also knew that she was no fool, and if he had kissed her the way he wanted to, she would realize that he is in love with her. He knows that she’ll find out eventually, but he wants to do it right. He’s never wanted to be in love, really - he never knew his dad, but he did know how heartbroken his mother was when he left. She was never the same, and he vowed never to love someone like she had, so that when they left, it didn’t hurt.

(He sometimes wonders if that’s why it hurt so bad when Clarke stayed in Polis.)

Lexa was in the same boat as he was, though - Clarke was as blind to her love as she was to Bellamy’s, and Lexa didn’t want to be broken. Leaders can’t be broken, she told him the night that they met, when she caught him staring at the curve of Clarke’s silhouette in the moonlight, and she had been broken before. Her name was Costia, and she was murdered. That’s when Lexa told him that love is weakness, and Bellamy finally understood what Clarke had meant when she said that keeping him from the mountain was weak. But if she really loved him, why couldn’t she tell him? Better to wait, he thought, because rejection is something he doesn’t think he can handle. He is selfish, but he is no fool.

After the fight was over and the crowd of their friends had dissipated, Bellamy walked up to Lexa. “Thank you,” he said simply, before running to catch up with his friends. Lexa stood for a moment, marvelling at Bellamy Blake and his strange ability to see everything except for what was most obvious - that Clarke loved him too. 

Bellamy knows that Clarke knows that Lexa let him win the fight. He almost wants to make a joke about it, but he’s worried that she’ll somehow realize the extent of his longing for her and reject him then and there. O says it’s stupid and that he should just tell her how he feels, but Bellamy is too scared to put himself on the line like that. Instead, he goes hunting with Lexa. 

They’re quite the pair, the two of them - or at least that’s what Clarke says. They come back with almost triple the game that Bellamy gets when with a team of six, and that’s on a mediocre day. But Bellamy doesn’t want the thick silence that covers their hunting trips like a blanket - he wants to talk, and talk until he forgets that Clarke might love him back. It’s harder than he thinks it is, to forget hope. 

“Lexa?” Bellamy breaks the silence tentatively. Lexa shakes her head, as if coming out of a trance, or whatever City of Light the second ALIE holds. 

“What is it, Bellamy Blake?” Lexa’s formal tone is too hard to read for Bellamy to be able to make sure he didn’t annoy her. 

“Why did you let me win the fight?” 

“I could see that she wanted you to win, too. Be careful, Bellamy - love is weakness, and I do not want you to get hurt.” It is the first time Lexa has said anything but his full name.

***

Lexa knows that Clarke loves Bellamy. She is very good at reading people, and even without the chip she has been an excellent study in the workings of the human mind. It is why she is such a great commander - she can read situations almost as well as she can fight, and she is an excellent fighter. She knows that Clarke loves Bellamy from the way she lights up when he says her name, from the way she forgives him every time, from the way she loves his sister. Bellamy’s love is more obvious, of course - he is a tactile lover, always touching her leg or shoulder when he doesn’t need to, always watching her carefully when she enters a room. Lexa doubts that Clarke has even admitted to herself that she’s in love with Bellamy Blake, but Lexa knows that she’ll figure it out eventually. And although Lexa is also in love with Clarke, she tells herself that it would never work anyways. They come from different worlds, almost literally, and Lexa is heda. It would not do well if she became romantically involved with one of the Skaikru so soon after the massacre that killed three hundred of her people, and even if it was, Lexa cannot be distracted. The coalition is barely holding together, and Lexa needs it to work. Blood must not have blood. She tells herself that every time she catches Bellamy staring at Clarke like the entire universe revolves around her. Blood must not have blood. He stares at her quite often.

***

It is a week after the fight. Nothing has changed, and Lexa returns to her quarters after a long, frustrating day negotiating with King Roan of Asgeda on the subject of what to do with their nightblood. When she enters the room, it smells like Clarke. 

She wanders around the room, wondering, hoping. Clarke is not there, but there is something on her nightstand - a new candle. Lexa smiles softly, breathing deep. Bellamy’s scraw sprawls across a thick sheet of paper tied to the candle with a fraying rope. 

I couldn’t figure out how to thank you, but then I saw all of the medicinal herbs she keeps with her in case of emergencies and finally figured out why she smells like the forest all the time. Monty helped me cook it up - I know how much you love your candles, Heda.  
-Bellamy Blake 

Lexa sighs, sitting back on her bed and letting the clean, crisp scent of her waft across the room. Blood must not have blood. She has begun to believe it.

**Author's Note:**

> this got long really quick oops, i just loved the idea of bellamy and lexa bringing out a lighter side in each other!  
> this is my first fic on ao3 so sorry if it's subpar  
> shoot me an ask on tumblr if you have any requests!


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